The upcoming budget in Neath Port Talbot could see libraries and youth clubs closing, an end of free transport for post-16 students with special educational needs as well as adults attending respite care – and a 5% increase in council tax.

The draft budget by Neath Port Talbot Council is currently out to public consultation.

It also includes a huge hike in some services such as pest control and burial charges.

The local authority is faced with making £12million savings next year.

Calling the budget “unpalatable”, council leader Rob Jones stressed that no decisions had yet been made.

He said: “There is a lot of potential decision-making issues in the draft budget that’s going to cause a lot of consternation to the community.

“But when you’re faced with balancing the books these are the decisions we have to look at in order to be legal, as far as the council budget is concerned.

“We have been told we will get a 0.2% increase in our funding from the Welsh Government but the reality is in order to have a stand still budget we need 5%.”

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Councillor Jones said the financial situation was so bad the local authority was considering taking £4 million out of its general reserves to make up the shortfall.

He said: “This is unprecedented.

“We have never been down this route before.

“We are taking a fifth of our reserves which is what we use to run the council.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Finance director Hywel Jenkins added: “It is a legal requirement to have reserves to deal with cash flow as some payments go out before grants come in, for example, or before we have collected the council tax.

“If we haven’t got reserves, we cant pay for ongoing services.”

Councillor Jones said funding from the reserves was needed for emergency and contingency planning such as the Panteg landslides, flooding and school fires damage.

Below is a guide to this year’s public consultation highlighting some of the issues that councillors will take decisions on over the next few months.

Council tax

The draft budget is based on a council tax increase of 5%.

Council tax for next year will be set in February 2019.

Every 1% in council tax generates around £700,000 of additional funding.

Councillor Jones said: “The perception that council tax pays to run the council is erroneous.

“It only goes to make up 25% of what we fund.

“We are heavily reliant on the Welsh Government.”

Libraries

(Image: PA)

The council is looking to close four of its eight libraries – those in Baglan, Cwmafan, Glynneath and Skewen.

Councillor Jones said: “We are going to undertake a complete review of our library services which might take up to two years.

“But there are four libraries we are looking at closing due to their usage.

“There is an adage here with all council services we provide – ‘use it or lose it’.

“We are hoping that community groups will look to take them on if they want to retain these facilities in the area.

“As reluctant as I am to close any facility I’m left with no alternative because I haven’t got the money to run them.”

Parking

Council run car parks in the three town centres are set to increase by an average of 30p from April 2019.

Councillor Jones said there would still be free parking for an hour in Pontardawe and on the seafront.

He said: “The tariff increase takes it back to the levels we had a couple of years ago – they were first cut to increase the footfall in town centres.”

Pest Control Service

The fee for pest control could triple – this would see the current £40 charge for three visits to deal with rats increase to £120.

Burial charges

The burial fee in cemeteries is set to increase by £141 from £659 to £800.

Councillor Jones said the local authority loses money on its cemetery service and even with the price hike it still wouldn’t become cost neutral.

Youth services

The youth services budget could be cut by £20,000 which will mean some services including youth clubs will have to reduce their hours or close.

Social services

The council is looking to end free taxi transport for adults to attend daily respite and college, if transport is not an assessed need.

Councillor Jones said: “Some people who we are currently providing with free transport actually have bus passes

“If they’ve got bus passes then they’re able to travel on a bus so why are we paying for them to have free transport?

“If somebody is totally wheelchair bound that’s different.”

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Some care packages for people are also to be reviewed to ensure services are not be provided where there is not an assessed need.

A change in policy is proposed to no longer provide the full range of support to older people where the package of support exceeds the current cost of a residential placement, where it is safe to do so.

Post-16 transport for students with Special Educational Needs

The council says it can no longer afford to provide free post-16 transport for students with special educational needs to go to college.

The service which is non-statutory has a budget of £228k but this year it is expected to cost £300k.

Councillor Jones said the local authority plans to work with colleges to discuss future arrangements.

Arts and Culture

The Pontardawe Arts Centre is facing further funding cuts of £110,000 over the next two years.

Councillor Jones said: “We are looking at all our premises as best we can to get them to become more or less cost neutral.

“At art centre we have a ‘Friends of’ society and we are working with them on a business plan.

“There is a plan to establish a cinema via Arts Council for Wales grant funding.”

Margam Park – the council is looking to cut its £200,000 subsidy to the education discovery centre.

Margam Park plans to increase its income with more weddings and other functions being held there.

Music Service

The council plans to completely cut its funding for the Music Service. It currently subsidises it with £160,000 but is looking to remove that over the next two years.

It plans to increase the charges that schools pay for the service.

The council points out that if schools no longer buy the service it could lead to staff cuts.

Councillor Jones said: “The Welsh Government has set aside £2 million for an all Wales music service but they haven’t funded it yet.

“If we could get our hands on that now it would save this service – the director of the music service is trying to get a share of it to offset some of these costs.”

Schools

Schools are set to receive £2.2 million more than last year but due to increased pressures and pay awards, the the total schools budget represents a real terms cut of around 2%.

“It has to be balanced against service provision and what is required to run those services.

“Where we can, we are also looking to delete posts where we have management vacancies and staff vacancies.”

Consultation

Councillor Jones said: “We provide more than 600 services in variety of fields and that all comes at a cost.

“The difficulty is with what we have to provide because it’s statutory and what we provide because it has become the norm.

“Where possible, we now have to look at these non-statutory areas.

“At the end of the day there must be a realisation of what we can afford to provide with the monies that are allocated.

“Like every consultation I always urge the community to engage with us.

“If you want to fight for your community you must use these services or lose them and you must feed into the consultation to guide us in making the final decisions.”

Finance director Hywel Jenkins added: “The Welsh Government is out to consultation on its draft budget.

“It’s important that local people feed into the local Assembly Members on the impact of changes that are going to affect people through the budget for which they have got responsibility to put in the appropriate amount of funding.”

Welsh Government will announce its final settlements for local authorities in December.

In a letter sent to Assembly Members representing the county, Councillor Jones says: “As far as I’m concerned, the responsibility for explaining the overall position – and the accountability for the consequences – rests firmly with those AMs who either support this [Welsh Government] budget or who have not actively proposed alternatives to dramatically tackle the situation.

“If the position is not addressed to a significant extent in the final budget/settlement, then any subsequent representations to the council made by the same AMs when these cuts begin to bit would, in my opinion, be both empty and hypocritical.”

Two hundred people have already responded to the budget consultation being undertaken by Neath Port Talbot Council since it was launched just over a week ago.

Last year 200 people responded during the entire two-month consultation.

The budget consultation ends on January 11, 2019.

Councillors will make the final decisions on budget cuts in February with many coming into force from April.

More information on the proposals and an online questionnaire can be found at npt.gov.uk

Alternatively there are feedback boxes at civic buildings, community centres and libraries across the county where paper versions of the feedback form can be posted.